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Art Lillard's Heavenly Big Band: Certain Relationships

Drummer Art Lillard's Heavenly Big Band continues to spread sunshine and happiness on Certain Relationships, an album recorded in three sessions spanning the half-dozen years between 2005-2011. Of the fifteen selections, nine are vocals by Pete McGuinness, Hilary Gardner, Andrea Wolper, Mary Foster Conklin or Dominique Eade. In Lillard's optimistic eyes, even the blues are gladsome (as Wolper affirms on Track 5, the buoyant "Happy Blues"). And the shuffling "You Bluesed Me," nicely sung by Conklin, is far more sunny than sullen.

McGuinness, best known as a trombonist who leads his own big band in the Big Apple, bares his vocal chops on the upbeat opener, "Evidence / Just You, Just Me," and resurfaces on the Chet Baker favorite, "Let's Get Lost." The silky-voiced Wolper is showcased on Antonio Carlos Jobim's "The Girl from Ipanema" and waits patiently in line behind trombonist Jack Davis before enhancing an unhurried reading of "Just Friends." Wolper and McGuinness intermingle on Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child" (usually a ballad but set here to a saucy Latin beat) while Eade helps wrap things up with a good-natured vocal / scat on the standard "Pennies from Heaven."

Lillard's point of view, if one may hazard a guess, seems to be that big-band jazz can be uplifting and fun to listen to as well as cerebral. With Certain Relationships as a benchmark, he is definitely on the right track. This is a refreshing album from start to finish.

I love jazz because it is musically complex, emotional, and challenges me.
I was first exposed to jazz later in life, at around 29 years old.
I met Barry Harris, Roy Hargrove, and Johnny O'Neal sitting in at jams in NYC

I love jazz because it is musically complex, emotional, and challenges me.
I was first exposed to jazz later in life, at around 29 years old.
I met Barry Harris, Roy Hargrove, and Johnny O'Neal sitting in at jams in NYC.
The first jazz record I bought was You Won't Forget Me by Shirley Horn.
My advice to new listeners is keep an open mind.

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